Woynaroski Lab: Biobehavioral Approaches in NeuroDevelopment (BAND)
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Meet The Team
Lab Director
Tiffany Woynaroski, PhD, CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor in Hearing and Speech Sciences
BS, Psychology, Valparaiso University (2002)
MS, Speech-Language Pathology, Vanderbilt University (2009)
PhD, Hearing and Speech Science, Vanderbilt University (2014)
Tiffany received her PhD from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences in December 2014 after an extensive clinical career working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) as an early interventionist/parent educator, speech language pathologist, and autism consultant. She has authored 55 published or in-press peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters, and over 110 presentations at academic conferences.
Research Staff
Catherine Bush, MA, CCC-SLP
Research Coordinator
Over the past 23 years as a Speech Language Pathologist, Catherine has primarily worked with young children in early intervention and in clinical translational research settings. Originally from Cookeville, TN, her Bachelor’s degree is in Music Therapy, and she earned her Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Catherine’s research experience includes working with children with Down syndrome, toddlers at increased likelihood for autism, and children with Developmental Language Disorders. Catherine’s research interests include working with caregivers to support their children’s language development. You can learn more about her work here.
Madison Clark, BA
Research Assistant
Madison is a Research Assistant in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. She graduated from Vanderbilt with a bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Medicine, Health, and Society in 2024, and plans to pursue medical school in the future. Madison’s research interests include language and communication development and audiovisual multisensory integration in infant siblings of autistic children.
Bahar Keçeli-Kaysili, PhD
Clinical/Translational Research Coordinator
After two years of extensive experience as a special educator working with young children on the autism spectrum as well as other developmental conditions and their families, Bahar pursued an academic career. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Ankara University, Turkey in 2012 and then went on to complete her postdoctoral research fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Her graduate work in special education aimed to understand the relationship of theory of mind and language in children with autism spectrum disorders. Her postdoctoral study focused on the foundations of spoken language acquisition and early communication, and language interventions. Her goal as a researcher is to identify (a) the relationship of theory of mind (ToM) and language in autistic children, (b) early predictors of language outcomes and the mechanisms by which these predictors promote communication and language in autistic children, (c) sensory responsiveness and its relation to later language skills.
She has been an author on 18 peer-reviewed publications and 36 conference presentations.
Suzanne Thompson, M.Ed., BCBA, LBA
Research Staff
Suzanne is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with more than 20 years of experience working with young children with autism and their families. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders and began her career as a Speech-Language Pathologist Assistant at the Bill Wilkerson Center. She later completed her master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education and fulfilled her clinical requirements to become a BCBA through Vanderbilt University’s practicum program.
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Suzanne’s professional experience spans classroom, home, and clinic settings, with the majority of her career dedicated to clinical research at Vanderbilt University. Over the past 15 years, she has served as an interventionist, lead assessor, parent trainer, and project coordinator, supporting young children with autism and related developmental differences. Her interests center on early intervention, family collaboration, and translating research into meaningful outcomes for children. She is excited to continue her work in autism and applied research with the BAND Lab.
Graduate Students
Grace Pulliam, BS
Graduate Research Assistant, Neuroscience
Grace is a third year PhD student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. She graduated from Vanderbilt in 2022 with a bachelors in Neuroscience, MHS, and Communication of Science and Tech.
Grace’s research interests include relations between audiovisual multisensory integration and ASD symptomatology. She is also interested in investigating links between preference for audiovisual temporal synchrony and early education outcomes.
Undergraduate Students
Drina Agojci
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Drina is a senior majoring in Medicine, Health, and Society with a double minor in Economics and Business in the college of Arts and Science Honors program. Drina is currently working on her senior thesis, where she is investigating whether caregiver stress influences language outcomes in toddlers with autistic and non-autistic siblings, and whether caregiver social supports and coping mechanisms affect this relation.
Kelsea McClurkin
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kelsea is a senior double majoring in Neuroscience and Child Development. Her interests include identifying how early brain patterns can impact later language outcomes through sensory responsiveness to provide intervention that aids in language development at earlier ages. She is also interested in outreach to underrepresented populations to increase diversity and representation in research. Kelsea is a part of the Maximizing Access to Research (MARC) program, a research community dedicated to providing access to research opportunities to diverse and historically underrepresented undergraduates in STEM.
Leela Waterford
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Leela is a senior majoring in Child Studies with a minor in Language Sciences. Her research interests include sensory differences and communication development in children with developmental delays, as well as intervention approaches for culturally and linguistically diverse populations. She plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh.